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Ghosts or Demons?
by Rich Newman
If you hunt ghosts long enough, you’ll eventually run into this
situation: a client who believes his or her home is under demonic
assault. It’s always a tricky situation, and it’s always difficult to
bring a resolution to these cases. More often than not, what you will
be dealing with is a simple haunting—though this may not be evident at
first look. You will have to go past the religious leanings, the
paranoia, and (possibly) the hysteria that’s typically clouding an
otherwise manageable case.
So, why do people often believe they are experiencing
demonic infestation? Well, there are a couple reasons for this. The
first is often the religious beliefs of the household. If the clients
attend a church that promotes the idea of active demons, demonic
possession, and infestation (or attended such a place in their youth),
they will often be quick to jump to the conclusion that they are under
just such an assault.
Another key factor is the overall fear level of the household. Not
everyone is as thrilled as ghost hunters at the prospect of
encountering a spirit! If the clients are afraid of what’s happening in
their home, they can often come to think of these occurrences as a kind
of negative activity. For instance, a door slamming is now done "in
anger" rather than it, perhaps, being the simple act of an entity to
get some attention.
Nine times out of ten, once you remove the fear factor
from a household, you will then be able to help the inhabitants
understand the benign nature of what is occurring around them and to
bring about a resolution to their haunting. Interestingly, though,
there are a few key concepts that come from the "demonic infestation"
theory that deserve a closer look.
Famed Roman Catholic exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth has
stated on more than one occasion that he believes all ghosts to
actually be demons that are attempting to gain the confidence of the
afflicted—with the intent of eventually possessing that person (you can
read about this in his book, An
Exorcist Tells His Story).
Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that this is the case. It
would certainly illuminate several unique situations that involve some
hauntings:
- Ghosts being in multiple places. Since investigators
believe that spirits are often attached to a specific property because
of environmental factors (such as the presence of limestone, nearby
water source, etc.), there has never been a good explanation as to why
some ghosts are seen in multiple places. The spirit of Abraham Lincoln
is just such a ghost. Clearly, there is only one Abraham Lincoln. So
who are the other spirits? Imposters? If each of these haunts is being
visited by a demon pretending to be Abraham Lincoln, it would certainly
explain the multiple appearances of the former president.
Click
here
to
read
the full article.
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An
Interview
with Rich Newman, Author of The
Ghost Hunter's Field Guide
by
Llewellyn
1. Your new book is titled The Ghost Hunter’s Field Guide.
What initially
drew you to ghost
hunting and the paranormal?
When I was a teenager, I briefly lived in
a home in Missouri that had a strange and subtle haunting; every night
my bedroom closet door would open by itself. You could actually hear
the door knob jiggle, then turn, and the door would swing up with a
long groan. Though it didn’t happen at the same time each night, it
never failed to occur. But nothing else happened in the entire home!
The mystery of investigating the ongoing activity and trying to uncover
why it was happening was my initial draw to the paranormal.
2. In recent years there has been a spate
of ghost hunting shows on television. Do the investigators on these
shows do the field of ghost hunting justice?
That’s
a tough question. Not every investigator agrees on (or uses) the same
types of ghost hunting techniques—though these days there’s probably a
program that appeals to every style of ghost hunter. I believe that the
actual investigators on the shows do their best to stay true to their
own style of investigation. If there’s a flaw to the programs, it comes
from the producers of the shows. Their need to provide "entertainment"
to viewers often causes a lot of disingenuous moments, encourages the
exploitation of controversial methods, and creates a lot of
misconceptions about how an investigation is often conducted.
3. How does one become a
ghost hunter? Are there any recommended "tools?"
Click here
to read
the full interview.
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Dream
Interpretation for Everyone
by Dr. Michael Lennox
Does every dream mean something? How do you find out
that meaning? By analysis or interpretation? Dr. Michael Lennox, dream
interpreter and author of Dream Sight, explains the power of dreams and
why every method of interpretation—and every interpretation—has value.
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A Meeting with Gerald Gardner
by Linda Raedisch
While working on her book Night of the Witches, author Linda Raedisch
discovered a meeting and subsequent correspondence between a
now-elderly friend and Gerald Gardner. Just how did the Father of
Modern Witchcraft influence our present-day? As the author discovers,
much more than you might initially think.
Read
More
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